Are you celebrating the holidays with your children this year? Are you wondering why I would ask such a question? For thousands of Virginians, whether or not they spend a holiday with their children depends on the year and details of their custody agreements.
With America’s family courts consistently ordering “primary custody” arrangements, holidays are often big commodities and listed out in many custody arrangements. While not required in Virginia, this kind of documenting (called a Parenting Plan by some states) is a very important place to start and should be required. More than 80% of split families are unnecessarily ordered into primary custody arrangements – and only 30% of those have the father as primary custodian. As more and more data supports the fact that shared parenting, after divorce or separation, benefits children the most, we must ask ourselves: What is taking our family courts so long to catch up to modern research?